It was 70 degrees yesterday, and to me, that is a cause for celebration. The birds are chirping, flowers are blooming, BBQ’s and bikes are being dusted off - yes, Spring is finally here! We took a little break after a fantastically successful Suppliers Night in February, and are back for our last two meetings of the year before we take the summer off.

Our April meeting is coming up and we’re checking out a brand new venue – the Chemeketa Eola Viticulture Center in Salem, OR. Come check out the sweeping views of grapevines in the Northwest valley on Tuesday, April 8th.

Our speaker will be Kenneth Racicot, an army food technologist that has a fascinating career engineering innovative ways to feed our troops! Check out Kenneth’s personal story and accomplishments on the National Defense Education Program’s website: http://www.ndep.us/PersonalStory.aspx?id=16

Did you know that you don’t need to be a member of IFT to attend our meetings? Non-members are always welcome and you only pay $5 more! Encourage one of your colleagues to come check us out. What do they have to lose?

For all you newcomers, our meetings kick off with a social hour at 5:30, followed by dinner at 6:30, announcements, and then our speaker.